# Sam Altman says a whole generation of researchers held AI back by underestimating what scaling could do

> Source: <https://the-decoder.com/sam-altman-says-a-whole-generation-of-researchers-held-ai-back-by-underestimating-what-scaling-could-do/>
> Published: 2026-06-21 09:12:01+00:00

At a Stanford talk, Sam Altman defended LLM scaling and hit back at skeptics, saying a whole generation of researchers slowed the field by underestimating what scaling could do. He cited OpenAI's recent disproof of a mathematical conjecture as evidence.

The article [Sam Altman says a whole generation of researchers held AI back by underestimating what scaling could do](https://the-decoder.com/sam-altman-says-a-whole-generation-of-researchers-held-ai-back-by-underestimating-what-scaling-could-do/) appeared first on [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com).